There are a number of word games available wherein play money is used along with a set of dice or a spinner to form words within a board game. These prior art games have provided entertainment and educational experiences. The present invention, however, is concerned with improving upon these prior art board games by including limitations and other features which foster mental exercises in forming words within distinct topic categories.
Lee et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,907,807 discloses a board game for playing crossword puzzles having a first continuous playing path lying adjacent to the outer edges of the board, with a second continuous playing path directly adjacent to the first. The remaining area inside the board includes a playing surface in the format of a crossword puzzle. Words are formed within the larger remaining area inside the continuous playing paths by rolling a die to determine whether the word to be played on the crossword puzzle shall be across or downward. Once a word is formed within the crossword puzzle in a square, the player must guess a word from clues provided by a set of playing cards. Correctly guessing the word allows a player to attempt to add an additional word on the inner crossword puzzle area. Although this board game utilizes a combination of a set of dice and playing cards, it does not include the use of a spinner and is limited to the use of playing cards with clues of a crossword puzzle variety that restrict the choice of words to be formed.
The Wohl U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,031 discloses a board game with two sets of cards for determining the name of a famous person having the initials on the drawing cards. The Wohl '031 patent does not have a common word forming board within a continuous playing path.
There are other board games which utilize multiple board spaces and involve word formation. Exemplary of such games include the method of playing a word forming game of the Lewis U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,538, the random selection word game of the Cammarata U.S. Pat. No. 4,340,231, the word forming game of the Sturtz U.S. Patent No. 4,171,815, the board game apparatus of the Brzezinski et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,306,724, the board game apparatus of the Kreischer U.S. Pat. No. 4,055,347 and the word construction game of the Smith U.S. Pat. No. 3,396,972. Although these last-mentioned games are entertaining and interesting, they do not improve and enhance the players' vocabulary skills to the extent that the word formation board game of the present invention does.
For example, the board game apparatus of the Brzezinski et al. '724 patent discloses a word formation game having an outer continuous path and an inner area for the formation of words. The outer continuous path includes spaces for category, penalty and bonus cards. Further, the outer continuous path has a spinner mounted thereto which provides a random control choice. A throw of dice controls the movement of a player piece along the outer continuous path. The game also includes a timing device and a set of dice. The formation of the words are determined by the categories provided by the category cards and includes limitations such as the use of penalty cards, the restriction that words formed must incorporate at least one letter of a previously formed word, and the inability to form words without the use of tiles.
Accordingly, it is considered desirable to have a board game apparatus having a playing area with a surface for erasable marking of letters, such that the letters can be entered onto spaces and then wiped away after the game is over; a surface where word tiles and player identification pieces can be removably stuck to the surface and then later removed when the game is over, a die having the term "ZAP" printed on one side of the die directing the player to spin a spinning device and to follow the instructions provided by the spinning device, and the ability to form words in the inner playing area by placing the letters forward, backward, vertically, horizontally or diagonally.